Alexander
King was a bestselling humorist, memoirist and media personality of the
early television era, based in the United States.In his late
fifties, after becoming a frequent guest on the a Tonight Show hosted by
Jack Paar, King emerged as an incongruous presence in the realm of
national celebrity: an aging, irascible raconteur, with elegant
mannerisms and trademark bow-tie, who spoke frankly and disarmingly
about his bohemian lifestyle, multiple marriages, and years-long
struggle with drug addiction. His checkered past led TIME magazine to
describe him as "an ex-illustrator,
ex-cartoonist, ex-adman, ex-editor, ex-playwright, ex-dope addict. For a
quarter-century he was an ex-painter, and by his own bizarre account
qualifies as an ex-midwife. He is also an ex-husband to three wives and
an ex-Viennese of sufficient age (60) to remember muttonchopped Emperor
Franz Joseph. When doctors told him a few years ago that he might soon
be an ex-patient (two strokes, serious kidney disease, peptic ulcer,
high blood pressure), he sat down to tell gay stories of the life of all
these earlier Kings."

He was also the author of several books, including May This House Be Safe from Tigers, Mine Enemy Grows Older, (an account of his addiction to morphine, and his recovery), and I Should Have Kissed Her More, Is There Life After Birth.
He illustrated and/or translated numerous editions of classics in the
early 20th century as well as a book by Peter Altenberg released as Alexander King Presents Peter Altenberg's Evocations of Love
(a collection of sweet memories of the heart from another place and
time in history). King's easy conversational recollections of the first
part of the 20th century are informative and often hilariously funny.
His accounts include many famous names most will recognize.

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